Liverpool confirm arrival of best in the world | OneFootball

Arguably though the area of the squad that has seen the biggest shake-up at the club this summer has been the goalkeeping department.

Liverpool had a really strong goalkeeper contingent last season with Alisson Becker as the club's no.1 choice, and Caoimhin Kelleher and Vitezslav Jaros behind him.

On top of that, goalkeeping coaches Fabian Otte and Claudio Taffarel were both key pillars in creating a strong environment for the club's goalkeepers to flourish.

But as Liverpool confirmed on their official website, the duo is set to depart, adding to the departures of Jaros on loan to Ajax and Kelleher on a permanent deal to Brentford.

In their place, the Reds have appointed Xavi Valero, who returns to the club after 15 years away from Anfield.

Previously he worked at Liverpool under Rafa Benitez for three years between 2007 until 2010. During his time at the club he worked with Jerzy Dudek, Pepe Reina and Peter Gulacsi.

After leaving Liverpool, he's worked at some of the biggest clubs and some of the best goalkeepers in the world. From Real Madrid to Napoli, Chelsea and Inter Milan.

During the course of his coaching he's also lifted both the Europa League and the Europa Conference League. Valero spent the last seven years at West Ham United, where he created a competitive goalkeeping environment and helped to develop a number of the club's young goalkeepers.

Valero is a huge coup for Liverpool. He's known as an innovator within the game, who works closely with neuroscience experts to help his goalkeepers improve not just physically but mentally as well.

The Spaniard places a key emphasis on the psychological aspects of the game from a goalkeeper's point of view.

He's also a staunch advocate of goalkeepers participating in the vast majority of team training sessions, rather than working in an isolated group away from the rest of the team.

This is something he introduced under Benitez at Liverpool to great success, helping to improve all the club's goalkeepers' ability on the ball.

© IMAGO - Xavi Valero Liverpool

To put it succinctly, Liverpool have lost a brilliant goalkeeping coach in Otte but they have replaced him with a coach in Valero who is regarded as one of the best in the world in his role.

Bringing in someone of his expertise is a massive boost for the Reds.

Valero will be arriving at an entirely new environment at Liverpool, with an almost completely fresh faced goalkeeping department. Apart from Alisson, there will be three new goalkeepers coming to Anfield in Giorgi Mamardashvili, Armin Pecsi and Freddie Woodman.

The former is expected to push Alisson for the no.1 position, and Valero's appointment is particularly smart because he has experience in how to deal with two goalkeepers pushing for the no.1 spot at West Ham.